Secretary: Dave Myatt

Editor’s note: The above summaries were submitted by the candidates themselves, but may have been edited for length, clarity and AP Style.

Dave Myatt’s campaign slogan is “Keep Rolling.” Basically, this pays homage to his favorite Wake tradition of rolling the quad and helps advocate for one of the main points of the platform he is running on: continuing the great work Student Government is doing by increasing retention rates.

It is essential we see an increased Student Government retention rate in the future. Myatt believes this is the biggest internal issue of our organization. This year, there are only four rising seniors running for Senate positions. Every senator is supposed to represent 100 students. There are over 1,100 people in the class of 2021. In an effort to improve retention rates, Myatt will promote more fun, team-building activities within student government.

Further, there is a large disconnect between student athletes and non-athlete students. One effort Myatt will make to bridge the gap is to work with Athletics, Student Union and The Office of Student Engagement to schedule freshman events in order to build camaraderie amongst all students. This will, in turn, boost attendance at sporting events and make Wake Forest a more well-rounded university. Also, Myatt would like to schedule more events directly with the Staff Advisory Council (SAC) and, if elected, will provide weekly reports from SAC meetings in the Senate.

Myatt will work with the Office of Student Engagement and Student Organizations Council (SOC) to help student organizations get back on their feet after a long absence due to COVID-19. Since it has been such a long break, there are likely many organizations that will struggle retaining membership. Also, since the semester was abruptly ended, there will likely be a large disconnect in transitioning leadership positions within the organizations from spring to fall. Myatt will accomplish this by working with the Office of Student Engagement and SOC to create workshops to help these organizations and their leaders.

There is a belief among many of Myatt’s constituents that after the tailgates became more regulated this year, they were actually much worse. This is because there was an increase in the number of students that participated in binge drinking before arriving at the tailgates. This had the inverse effect as intended, as students were more heavily intoxicated after the rule was installed. If elected Secretary, Myatt will work with Athletics to attempt to repeal this rule in an effort to make tailgates more safe and enjoyable to the student population.